That’s the question that owner’s project manager, Paul Griffin, may pose to the Hyannis Fire District building committee on May 5.

Since the defeat of a $19.8 million proposal at a special district meeting March 5, Griffin said, he’s been working with project architect Michael McKeon and Chief Harold Brunelle to find cost reductions.

“We’ve been given the charge to cut at least a million dollars off the budget,” Griffin said in a telephone interview this week. In addition, the district hopes to bring in $2 million by selling property in Hyannisport and on Bearse’s Way in Hyannis; proceeds from those sales can be used only for a new station.

Eliminating the third floor of the building will mean savings, though the numbers are not yet available. After looking at the entire building, Griffin said, “we were able to scale out several thousand square feet. It’s gone down, which means the cost has gone down.”

Griffin said he realizes that “some people out there think the building committee should be designing the building,” but he says that, as chairman of the Mashpee building committee for six years, he learned that’s not a great idea.

“When the building committee starts to micromanage,” he said, “you end up designing a camel when you started out to design a horse.”